Section 31 - Mirrors
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: Set after "Mirror Mirror," Section 31 have to deal with the choice - do they let Starfleet remain aware of the Terran Empire and the threat it poses, or do they bury it like they did when Philippa Georgiou's counterpart helped to end the Federation-Klingon War?


Although I hate Star Trek Discovery I have needed to take the mirror universe episodes into account to write this story. I don't own Star Trek, but if I did the current "prequel" to the Original Series would be vastly different.

Please leave feedback and thanks for your continued support.

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Section 31 - Mirrors.

It was official - Starfleet had made "First Contact" with the hostile parallel universe, known to some as the mirror universe because of how similar and yet opposite to the Federation's own universe. The truth was Starfleet, or some people in the organisation like that fool Michael Burnham and Admiral Katrina Cornwall knew about the Terran Empire, especially since one of 31's top agents, the mirror version of Starfleet officer Phillippa Georgiou, had joined their organisation after that mess of a war with the Klingons.

Section 31 had brought her in because she not only had nowhere else to go but also because she had knowledge and experience far beyond the range of many of their top agents. Under the mirror Georgiou's leadership, the Terran Empire, a brutal, fascistic organisation where humans ruled supreme over aliens instead of working together in cooperation and friendship like in the Federation, had expanded and explored places Starfleet in this universe had simply not dared to go. With the Empire's attitude of shooting to kill first, asking questions later it was probably no wonder Starfleet in that universe had reached so far and had become powerful enough to reduce Qo'Nos to a dead world.

No-one in the Federation would have condoned the news the heartland of the Klingon Empire, the seat of the High Council, had been destroyed, crippling the Klingons and making war with the Federation the last thing on their minds as they strove to survive. Georgiou had told her new commanders in Section 31 the Terran Empire had destroyed Qo'Nos because the Klingons had been making a lot of noise, but the end result was simple; with Qo'Nos destroyed, the Terrans were finally able to push themselves deeper into Klingon territory, and even beyond.

The presence of the alternate version of one of Starfleet's most famous and legendary captains had caused a major stir in Starfleet Command. They only agreed to their plan to stop the war with the Klingons because they didn't want to be put under the brutal whip of Klingon rule. The Klingons were a race of hunters who preyed on anyone weaker than they were. The Federation had put up a good fight, but they had virtually lost the war before accepting the brutal plan. Once it was over no-one back in Starfleet HQ wanted to deal with her, so Section 31 had stepped in because they had seen the value of having a woman who was willing to fight to the very death, and besides her skills as a military strategist and her knowledge alone was beneficial because she knew about places Starfleet had never really explored.

It may be a universe apart, but the knowledge was still invaluable.

Starfleet (with Section 31 manipulation) had sealed away all knowledge of the mirror universe. Some in Starfleet, particularly those admirals who held a scientific background, argued there was the chance to explore a whole new universe, damn the dangers involved, and it took a lot of work before Starfleet sealed away the records.

The idea behind the sealing of the records was to allow Section 31 the time to develop tactics to deal with the Terran Empire in case the Terrans discovered too much about parallel universes.

The Spore Drive experiments were also cancelled. Officially it was because of the need for a human host to make the drive work, but unofficially it was to seal off the potential the Terrans would discover the Federation beyond what they probably knew already. Georgiou had told them, not that she had that much alternative, about the fate of the USS Defiant, though she was unaware of what actually caused the incident - interdimensional and temporal - that sent the Defiant back into the past, into the hands of the Terran Empire. The logs of the ship had been deleted by that universe's version of Hoshi Sato after going through a lot of trouble with the non-humans. Georgiou had few details, but the Section 31 operatives could guess.

Either way, Section 31 had the time it needed to prepare in case the Terrans did find their way into the Federation. With access to the Federation's resources which doubled what they had, giving them a stepping stone into other universes and allowing them to conquer other universes.

Many 31 operatives and tactical experts had also predicted the Terran Empire may attempt to use the opportunity to travel back into the pasts of those other Earths and rewrite history, making the various alternate versions of humanity into copies of them - fascistic, morally divergent, brutal while making them form their own smaller Terran Empires, or manipulating events so then the humans in those universes became their willing foot soldiers.

Keeping the lid on the Terran Empire's existence gave Section 31 the power to form strategies and tactical training scenarios designed to deal with the Empire. In the meantime, Section 31 would send some of their operatives into the parallel universe using the spore drive, taking advantage of the ban because Section 31 was above and beyond the normal rules.

The knowledge gleaned by 31 on the Terran Empire could fill a library, and they were still gathering information gradually on a yearly basis. They had decided to send their operatives and agents into the Mirror Universe once every year with a search and rescue team standing by in case the Terrans got wind of their operation and they needed to get out before they were subjected to the agony booths used by the Empire to punish anyone who put a toe out of line. In the first year of this operation alone, they had managed to learn a vast amount of the Terran Empire's history and their aims and had made predictions based on their observations.

With those missions and their observations, many in Section 31 had come up with various contingency plans in case the Terran Empire discovered a means of invading their own universe, and they had planted them in various places for full effect should the Terrans invade.

But now Starfleet Command had received word from the USS Enterprise - why was it the Enterprise was the ship which encountered so much and also caused more than enough grief for Section 31 directly or indirectly? - that four members of the senior staff had accidentally crossed over into the parallel universe thanks to a transporter malfunction when the Enterprise tried to beam them back from negotiations with the Halkan council in the middle of an ion storm.

Sitting back in his chair, the operative of Section 31 thought back about the report - she had read it a few times already to have memorised the basics of Kirk and his crew's experience in the first place - and tried to think about the long term effects. The Terran Empire would probably have received a report from that James T. Kirk by now about the crossover as well, though truthfully only the higher ranking members of the Empire would probably know about the Defiant's true origins anyway, though it was doubtful they knew where their Gabriel Lorca had fled to originally.

Someone once said no-one from their universe could survive for long in that universe, but that was completely wrong. It had nearly cost him his life since Starfleet officers (and civilians) routinely assassinated others in order to reach the top, but he had managed to maintain his cover long enough to survive and get back. But the senior staff of the Enterprise had not glossed over how dangerous and brutal the Terrans happened to be, not that she could blame them. Everyone in 31 knew how dangerous the mirror version of Georgiou was, the way she had tried to destroy Qo'Nos proved that, though truthfully the destruction of the Klingon homeworld may have not only ended the war, but it might have made the Klingons pull back, though there was no evidence of that since the Klingons were well known for declaring war based on revenge for acts committed against them.

As she sat in the chair, she wondered if they could cover up the Terran Empire again, but she decided it wasn't a wise move. Most of Section 31's activities and cover-up decisions were only best if they happened the once. If they tried to cover this crossover up there was a chance Kirk could find out about it, even if he was out in deep-space on his five-year mission, and that was trouble that they did not need.

Section 31 worked best without Starfleet being aware of them looking over their shoulder. If Kirk picked up on too much it could be disastrous; not only would one of Starfleet's most prized captains, which gave him quite a bit of influence, discover their existence, he might manage to discover much more about Section 31. And worst of all he might discover the operatives currently on board his ship, it would be disastrous. Many times in Starfleet history had captains or senior officers come dangerously close to discovering the existence of Section 31 through one of their operatives, but it was only either due to blind luck or the quick thinking their people were meant to exhibit nothing had happened, but the moments did occasionally happen, and if James T. Kirk came across something suspicious and was traced all the way back to Earth, then Section 31 could kiss goodbye to their security policies.

She pushed that aside and thought about the parts of the report that had jumped out at her. It hadn't surprised anyone in Section 31 who had knowledge and experience of the Empire, especially those who had visited the place, the Empire was still out there plundering planets for their minerals to expand and fuel their Empire to conquer new planets to keep themselves going. The destruction of the Halkans wouldn't have batted an eyelid at their Starfleet Command, especially since they had ordered it in the first place. It would be just another in a long line of genocides - the Mintakans, the Gorlan, and on and on. Amen.

She made some notes to contact the operatives on the Enterprise to make sure the crew didn't try to discover too much, never mind try to figure out a way of breaking through the dimensional barriers to go back to the parallel universe to explore it, much like Starfleet command was currently debating with the light-speed breakaway factor the Enterprise happened to discover a year before to travel back into the past to study history in a far more in-depth manner. Section 31 didn't particularly care about those missions, though truthfully there were advantages to using the time-warp factor in order to study the enemies of the Federation in the past, and many in 31 were researching ways of travelling back into the past for that purpose. They had no objection to that, but they did object to travelling anywhere near the Terran Empire.

The Discovery crew had been lucky enough to survive one trip, the thought of them surviving in a parallel universe where their duplicates were barbaric brutes did worry her. But there was something good about this contact.

James T. Kirk had met with the alternate Spock, and the Vulcan had logically accepted the fact the Empire could not last the way it had forever. Sooner or later in the next century or so, the Empire would collapse.

Because of the threat facing them from that other universe, Section 31 was intrigued by the prospect of collapsing the Terran Empire, but she doubted that the word of a single Vulcan would be able to completely bring down the Empire, and she wondered if Spock could use some help to collapse it, though what would happen to the Empire she didn't know and frankly she couldn't bring it within herself to truly care.

In the meantime, she pondered what they could do about the knowledge of the parallel universe. Did they let it circulate while making it clear that only the most bizarre circumstances could result in a crossover? That was possibly the best option, and besides, they had to think about the consequences of Kirk potentially discovering their existence if they just happened to wipe away or bury the existence of a parallel universe.

But the drawback was telling her superiors about the fact they may need to change their plans for the Terran Empire. She knew only too well that many in Section 31 wanted the Terran Empire to disappear before they became smart, and found a way to travel into different universes, including the one where they had gotten the Defiant from, and conquer it. She could imagine many of those operatives feeling contempt for Kirk's naive belief that only one man with a vision forced on them could make a difference, but she could imagine those same operatives making plans to crossing over into the parallel universe of the Terran Empire, and making it possible for Spock to do some work and bring the Empire down.

Sure, it would mean the sacrifice of the allowing Starfleet to release information about the parallel universe, but she was confident they could ensure those admirals who did already know about the Terran Empire keep their mouths shut, and just go with the flow. Yes, that was a good plan; a few threats, some blackmail, and they would do as they were told. She looked around the bare, dark room, and her mind returned to the Terran Empire, and she wondered if, across the dimensional plane, the Empire's equivalent of Section 31 was thinking about destroying the United Federation of Planets as well, but hopefully they would get there first and the Empire would never be a threat.

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Until the next time..


End file.
